Mar 30, 2013; Philadelphia, PA, USA; Philadelphia Flyers defenseman Kurtis Foster (3) checks Boston Bruins left wing Daniel Paille (20) in front of goalie Ilya Bryzgalov (30) during the third period at the Wells Fargo Center. The Flyers defeated the Bruins, 3-1. Mandatory Credit: Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports

Well, we’re in the home stretch now. The Boston Bruins (until recently) have been playing sub-par(to the level we know they CAN play at) hockey and pulling out win after win. These last few weeks though, it seems to be the exact opposite. The Bruins have been playing better technical hockey but just not getting the lucky breaks they were getting early in this abridged season. So, even though the Black and Gold will be making their sixth straight run for the Cup, some of us are still a little worried.

Tonight the Bruins(27-12-5) are on the road against the recently eliminated Philadelphia Flyers (20-22-3). Even though the Bruins have locked up some position in the post-season, the drive to be as high as possible is present in the locker room. “We’re just trying to control the games that we can play, obviously we want to try and win as many as we can.” offered Merlot Man Daniel Paille. At present, the Bruins are once again in the position of being tied with their arch rivals, the Montreal Canadiens.  The Bruins are technically atop the leaderboard due to having played one less game than Montreal. As always the rivalry is usually on the minds of the players.

“I think, if anything, it’s been a back and forth battle all year.” said Adam McQuaid (who is currently as ’probable’ for tonight’s matchup)”It’s been a good one, and it’s one, at the end of the day that we’d like to win.” While the battle has been back and forth, the last two months have seen more of Montreal at the top than Boston. As the Canadiens are also playing tonight (against another eliminated team, the New Jersey Devils), this gives Boston an opportunity to take an important two point lead in the last yards of the sprint.

While it’s pretty sure that the Bruins will likely end up taking the second or fourth seed in the conference, who their opponent in the first round is not as clear. Four teams are within two points of each other for the bottom three slots.  As the second seed, the Bruins are likely to face the New York Islanders(which I’d prefer) or the New York Rangers(which could be trouble). The way the games are going, we could even see us playing the Ottawa Senators, or maybe even (I’m surprised myself here) the Winnipeg Jets.

Below are the projected lines for tonight’s game at the Wells Fargo Center:

Brad Marchand-Patrice Bergeron-Tyler Seguin (Good call coach, don’t mess with what works.)

Milan Lucic-David Krejci-Rich Peverley (Looks like Looch is out of the dog house for now. Partly due to Nathan Horton‘s injury.)

Chris Kelly-Carl Soderberg-Jaromir Jagr (Soderberg may center or wing at Coach Julien’s discretion)

Daniel Paille-Gregory Campbell-Shawn Thornton (Necessary evil. Both Campell and Paille have performed when they get bumped up.)

Zdeno Chara-Johnny Boychuk (Boychuk’s been blocking pucks like he’s the crease as of late, hoping for more solid D tonight.)

Matt Bartkowski-Dennis Seidenberg

Andrew Ference-Adam McQuaid

The game will start at 7:30 tonight.  It will be on NESN, and NBCSN. As always, it will be broadcasted on 98.5 The Sports Hub

March 2, 2013; Boston, MA USA; Boston Bruins left wing Brad Marchand (63) makes a pass during the first period against the Tampa Bay Lightning at TD Garden. Mandatory Credit: Bob DeChiara-USA TODAY Sports

The Boston Bruins (13-2-2) were working overtime this afternoon against the Tampa Bay Lightning (9-10-1). Special teams on both clubs played an important part of today’s game.  The Bruins were out to play a tough physical game today, but sometimes that physicality ends up costing them. An interference call against Milan Lucic set the Tampa Bay Lightning up for a power play goal against Anton Khudobin at 5:32 in the first.  Steven Stamkos got his fifteenth goal of the year on that drive.  A few minutes later, a tripping call against Andrew Ference left the Bruins short handed again. This time, Alexander Killorn got one past the Bruins for the Lightning to take an early two goal lead against the Bruins.

The Bruins are not a team to panic in the clutch. Once again, the Bruins rose to meet a challenge with one of their own. In the second period the momentum shifted back towards the Black and Gold. The Bruins found themselves in a power play situation with an interference call against the Lightning’s Eric Brewer. That set up a rare power play goal from Tyler Seguin. Seguin, scoring his fourth of the year showed us the hands that did so much damage for us last season.  (Dougie Hamilton and David Krejci were credited with the assist.) The Bruins kept the pressure up in the second. A mere seventy seven seconds later found Rich Peverley letting one fly through Mathieu Garon to tie it all up at two.

Today was also a serious penalty fest for both squads. Seventeen penalties were called against both teams, for a total of fifty minutes in all. It also had a decent fight card with Adam McQuaidand Gregory Campbell racking up five for fighting. (One would argue that these two men aren’t afraid of dropping the gloves, but nearly the entire team will drop and pound for the right reason.) Those penalties added up to a total of four power play goals, with each team scoring two. The final Bruins’ power play goal came from our leading scorer and most consistent sniper, Brad Marchand.

The Bruins were on the power play due to a double minor called against Brendan Mikkelson. Mikkelson hit Lucic in the face with his stick, and it turned to be the final game changer. Patrice Bergeron set up Marchand for an easy goal(Marchand’s team leading eleventh of the season.) on the empty side of Garon’s net. That easy goal happened because Stamkos attempted a short handed goal, but a lucky bounce left the Lightning open for a shot that gave the Bruins the go-ahead goal and the win.

Marchand complemented his teammates for the goal and the win.  Don’t get me wrong, I love the instigating, chirping Little Ball of Hate as much as anyone. I have to say though, I like this mature Marchand better. He’s got a better team mentality and all the tomfoolery of the last two seasons has been replaced by a desire to get his team points in every game.

The Bruins are now 14-2-2. Those thirty points are good enough to return the B’s back to first place in the Northeast Division and the Eastern Conference. That standing will be tested tomorrow as they take on the Montreal Canadiens in the Garden. This should be one of the more interesting games of the season as ancient rivals once again square off for dominance in the division.

Feb 2, 2013; Toronto, ON, Canada; Boston Bruins head coach Claude Julien reacts as left wing Brad Marchand (63) watches a replay on the overhead scoreboard against the Toronto Maple Leafs at the Air Canada Centre. The Bruins beat the Maple Leafs 1-0. Mandatory Credit: Tom Szczerbowski-USA TODAY Sports

Conference standings.

The Bruins showed their mettle early in the week with a 5-3 victory over the Carolina Hurricanes. It proved that Dougie Hamilton was fully ready to be a NHL player, (thanks again Kessel!) and was meshing well with the Bruins d-men. Special teams also played an important part of that game. Two power play goals (albeit one was Tyler Seguin’s empty netter), and a short handed goal courtesy of Brad Marchand. Bruins’  back up goaltender Anton Khudobin also chalked up his first win of the year in that victory.

The very next night the Boston Bruins had a run in with the New Jersey Devils. The Bruins were able to take home another victory. They beat the Devils 2-1 in a shootout victory. Nathan Horton once again our clutch master as he got in a goal past Devils’ netminder Johan Hedberg to tie up the game with less than five minutes in regulation. It was a night of firsts in the shootout though. The Devils led the league in shootout wins last season with twelve, and it was anyone’s game when the shootout began. Tyler Seguin had his first attempt nullified due to someone throwing food on the ice. “That’s a first,” Tyler Seguin said afterwards. “I’m still not sure what it was. Maybe a hot dog.”

It came down to Brad Marchand taking his first shootout goal EVER. “All I could hear was [Seguin] saying, `go high, go high,’ ” said Boston’s Little Ball of Hate, “but I just kind of blacked out. I don’t know what happened. … I’m serious. I blacked out.” He got the goal through and when the last Devils’ shot bounced off Tuukka Rask’s pad, the Bruins had gotten their second win in as many days.

Then we had a slip up. The Buffalo Sabres had come to town, and they came ready to play. Our defense just wasn’t clicking like it usually did, and the Sabres took advantage of a lot of our mistakes. Thomas Vanek, who has been a magician with his goals against us earned his eighth career hat trick against us.  We lost Shawn Thornton early to a fight with Buffalo’s resident pugilist John Scott. Thornton got a concussion in the dust up and is slated to be out for a week.

The Bruins weren’t quiet on offense though. Rich Peverley got his first goal of the season, and Brad Marchand added two of his own. David Krejci’s goal in the third kept the Bruins competitive even with the breakdowns. Coach Claude Julien had no excuses over the Bruins first loss of the season. The Bruins were defeated by Buffalo 7-4.

The Bruins came back with a vengeance against a tough Toronto Maple Leafs team and some visually impaired referees. I had joked on Twitter that the refs should have gotten the third star for Tornoto and I stand by that assessment. While I am not accusing them of a lack of integrity, I will call them out for missing penalties that should have been assessed against the Maple Leafs. Two goals were disallowed in the game, one for each team. Both were waved off as incidental contact.

Chris Bourque had been a healthy scratch for the Sabres fiasco. It gave him a new perspective on the NHL playing game, and he used it well. He put up his first goal (and the game winner) early in the first period. “I grew up being the biggest Boston Bruins fan so being able to score a goal for the Bruins is something that I am never going to forget for the rest of my life,” said Bourque who is the son of Bruins’ legend, Raymond Bourque. “I just wanted to drive hard to the net and maybe drag a defenseman to me and open up a little lane … and it ended up working out – a perfect pass right on my tape, and I just buried it.”

It was a great night for Boston to exorcise a few demons. Tuukka Rask earned his first shutout win for the season, and the twelth of the year. “I think I’ve played solid every night, despite letting in six goals last game.” Rask said. “When you get a shutout, there are no mistakes, so mistake wise, maybe yeah [it was my best game]. We didn’t go on that run and gun, which happened last game, we just stuck with the program and grinded it out.” The only scary moment was when Marchand, who got tripped up by Reimer’s skate ended up flying into the backboard.  He was pulled after a few shifts and is listed as day-to-day now.

“It was a cautionary move on our part, instead of making the situation worse,”  Coach Julien said. “We don’t want to lose players for long term injuries by pushing through a minor one.”

It was a rough and tumble week for the Bruins, but the Bruins have proven their depth. Lane MacDermid had two fights in the Toronto game both against Mark Fraser. It’s safe to say MacDermid pulled a draw on the first one, and handily beat Fraser in the second. Jamie Tardif, another AHL veteran came up from Providence and showed his ability to quickly mesh with the Boston’s fourth line. Gregory Campbell, MacDermid, and Tardif played that game like they had been playing together all season.

The Bruins, with their thirteen points lead all teams in the Northeast Division and the Eastern Conference. They have the third best team in the league, and week three starts off with a very pivotal matchup against one of their oldest rivals, the Montreal Canadiens. Whoever wins that game will lead the division, and no doubt the Bruins will be ready for this challenge.